Orlando Magic 2011 Draft Review: Magic make big moves on draft night.
The Magic ended up acquiring acquiring a first round pick tonight, in exchange for Quentin Richardson. Richardson was traded to the Bulls for the draft rights to the 30th pick in the draft, Jimmy Butler. Not finished there, GM Phil Jackson traded his 2nd round pick with Brandon Bass for his former player Lamar Odom.
Odom looked to be on the outs in Los Angeles with the first round sweep against the Mavericks. Odom fits the bill with Orlando as a stretch four facilitator alongside Hedo Turkoglu and Dwight Howard. The formula worked for the Magic with Rashard Lewis previously. Odom has 2 years and 17million remaining on his contract, but his second year is a team option. This is a low risk high reward move for the Magic.
With the last pick in the first round, the Magic picked Jimmy Butler, a 6'8" forward from Marquette. Butler made headlines as draft time neared because of his story. Butler was homeless as a 14-year-old until a family took him in. The ESPN draft coverage team said that Butler faxed his letter of intent to play at Marquette from a McDonald's.
Butler plays exactly how you want guys to play. Overall he's just a hardworking basketball player. He made a living at Marquette off of playing tenacious defense and doing the right things on offense. He plays off of his teammates and is an extremely unselfish basketball player. Butler has decent footspeed and enough length to guard the small forward position effectively.
The big problem that I have with Butler is that he doesn't have much range on his jumper, which makes him a questionable fit in Stan Van Gundy's 3 point happy offense, but maybe that will change now with Phil Jackson's influence.
That said, there's no reason he couldn't develop a shot now. He developed a decent mid-range game during his time at Butler in fact. However, until he does that, he will only be a role player, and perhaps he always will be. Of course, there's nothing wrong with getting a solid role player with the 30th pick in a weak draft.
He might actually get some burn since he's a Stan Van Gundy kind of player: defensive minded, hardworking, unselfish, and team oriented. Even though he's not a shooting guard answer, he still will likely be a fan favorite in Orlando because of his tenacity and story.
All in all, just taking a quick glance at what the Magic did in this draft, I feel like they addressed some needs. Orlando needed a young, rangy defender and got that in Butler. They also picked up a stretch four facilitator Jackson trusts in Lamar Odom. Odom could work very well with Dwight Howard this year.